Poem #8 - Michael O'Leary

Doomsblay:

One Hundred Years of Desmond and Molly, Ha, Ha Ha Ha

Everything seemed exact, yet dislocated 

The old Stock Exchange building standing

In pre-neon illuminated clock flashed

An iridescent flicker onto the tramlines

The streets looked washed and clean

As after pre-Hendrix summer rain  

The time flashed again – Kuata pahi

Ono karaka – followed by the date

It was their first walk together

As the 6.15 tram to Caversham

Went clanking past they saw

16^th June, 1904, written in the sky

Te tekau ma ono o nga ra o Hune;

Ko te kau kotahi mano iwa rau ma wha

Day of Days, Holies of Holies

Heaven and Earth are full of your glory

They planned a coach ride to Sandymount 

“Next Tuesday – it’s only 1s/6d each way,”

Hinengaro and Patrick Miki were in love

As James and Nora, in their own way

Doomsblay maybe amidst the smoke of battle,

But there is no battle in the smoke of Juno

Wai Rongoa now holds ten special gold medals

As they walked quickly past Dallas and Watts

All along the Boulevard de Dunedineaux

It was getting dark now and the last tram

Up the valley would soon be leaving, that waka

Entering into the strange seas of moemoeä 

From the rising cloud of a locomotive’s boiler 

A moko also appeared engraved on its surface

This Moko told an ancient story of Abelard

And his niece and their ill-fated

Kei te kata nei ano, kua mane te ngakau

A, te mutunga o taua koa he pouri . . .

The cloud face, smiling down at them

Leading them closer towards the cliffs

And they were falling, falling down

All the days from 1904, down the thousand

Miles from Tamaki-makau-rau to Otepoti – its still the same old story . . .